Last sunday we drove to the very heart of Dortmund to visit the natural history museum.
The teacher Prof. Edgar Weiner was responsible for the natural scientific collection. The collection grew ongoingly. 1887 he asked the natural scientific society to found a museum for the city of Dortmund. The city bought a building at the Victoria Street 25 and Weinert was appointed chairman and first director.
1934 the exhebition grew largely and the city bought a much bigger building at the Balkenstraße. Unfortunately WWII destroyed 90% of the inventory, but it was in 1953 that the inventory grew again to its before-war-status. 1980 the museum moved to Fredenbaum and it was the main goal to show plants and animals from the region of the Ruhrpott, Sauerland, Siegerland and Münsterland. Today, after a six-year restauration, the museum reopened in 2020 during the pandemic. Let's see what they have on display, especially mineralogy, paleontology and meteorites...
before entering the museum we passed a small park with various stones and rootage as well as a mine head frame
It is from the closed "
Lüderich"-mine (on duty from 1907-1979) which discharged lead and zinc.
Let's go inside
Comparison of eggs: left = Ostrich Struthio camelus, egg = 1,9 kg
middle = common chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita , egg = 15mm long
right =
elephant bird Aepyornis maximus, Madagascar, extinct - egg = 31cm long, contains 9 litres
Aldabrachelys gigantea
The 117-kg-Turtle from the Seychelles lived in the Zoo of Dortmund and died 1986. These turtles may live for 250 years!
Tropidolaemus laticinctus
This preserved broadbended temple viper was stored in the museums' collection for 206 years before it was identified by
Kuch, Ulrich, Gumprecht & Melaun as a new species in 2007
The tiger is on display with various bags and artifacts to show which parts of this wonderful animal are used for "special medicine"
The lion has been given for permanent loan by the customs of Gießen (near Frankfurt) to show that this special species is endangered to end up as a trophy by hunters. I really condemn this!
. The North Island Giant Moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae) was about 3,6m high and wheighed about 230 kg.. New Zealand had been isolated for 80 million years and had few predators before human arrival. Polynesians arrived sometime before 1300, and all Moa were soon hunted. By 1445 all Moa had become extinct.
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Redwood Tree Sequoia ** This perfect preserved slice of the tree wheighs 500 kg
Miocene (23,03-5,3 million years ago)
Oregon, USA
Triassic (251,9-201,3 mya)
Arizona, USA
Palaeontology:
Rhizostomites (fossil Jellyfish)
(Cast taken from an original fossil at Eichstätt, Germany)
might have looked like this?
Solnhofen limestone, Bavaria
Silurian period (432-418 mya)
Southwestern Ukraine
Bronce cast of a male and female
Mammuthus primigenius (Woolly mammoth)
Scale 1:10
Mineralogy
Druse with agate and amethyst
Sometimes bubbles of gas occur in solidified lava and - with enough time passing by - minerals grow inside the void volume.
Gold with quartz,Moliagul = southwestern Australia
pure sulfur, Italy
cubic pyrite, Huanzalá, Peru
Garnet (german: Almandin) on mica slate , Ötztal, Tyrol, Austria
Opale with vivid colours, Nevada, USA
Mirabeau diamond (mountain crystal) in a chalk concretion
Rémuzat, France
Opale from Australia
Atacamite is a comparatively rare mineral, formed from primary copper minerals in the oxidation zone of arid climates.
Vanadinite on triplite, Marocco
Celestite, Mahajanga, Madagascar
Aquamarine (blue beryl), Shengus, Pakistan
Aquamarine on muscovite, Hunza valley, Pakistan
Rubies and sapphires from Kenia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka
Tourmaline is a gemstone and can be found in a wide variety of colors. It is a crystalline silicate mineral group in which boron is compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium.
Topaz (findspot unknown)
Kyanite is a typically blue aluminosilicate mineral, found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and sedimentary rock.
Stibnite is a sulfide mineral
Crocoite is a mineral consisting of lead chromate
pure Arsenic, Poland
and last, but not a least a giant mount chrystal in the center of the mineralogy cabinet
found 1973 in Jessieville, Arkansas, USA, bought from the museum in 1980
wheighs 400 kg
Cosmology / meteorites
NWA (Northwest Africa) 2481, meteorite from the Asteroid "Vesta"
Stone meteorite, fragment, 67g
"La Criolla" meteorite with metallic glow (comes from iron inside)
cut fragment, 52 g
on January 6, 1985 a fireball heralded the arrival of La Criolla
"
Imilac" - Stone and iron, typical "Pallasite"
polished slice, 121 g
found in the Atacama desert, Chile in 1822
>> 24° 12′ 46″ S, 68° 48′ 31″ W
"Toluca" - iron/nickel meteorite
cut and acid etched slice, 1,8 kg
you can see the so-called Widmannstätten-structures
found in Mexico in 1776
I hope you enjoyed our tour. There are much more things to see, but there has to be something left over for you to discover by yourself :-)
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